dropsy
Published July 24, 2024 | 
Q. My great aunt died a number of years ago of “dropsy.” What does this mean in modern medical terms? This information is to be passed on to children and grandchildren as part of their family history.A. You raise an interesting and increasingly common concern as more people seek information about family history, including medical history.
Some of the medical terms used in the past have been discarded or replaced by new terms, in part due to more precise diagnosis.
Dropsy, from the Greek word “hydrops” (derived from the Greek word for water), is now called edema (swelling). It is due to abnormal accumulation of fluid in the tissues of the body and is commonly manifested as swelling of the lower extremities. It may be due to any number of causes including heart failure, kidney disease, liver disease, and even severe vitamin or nutritional deficiency. Unless you have more information as to its cause in your great aunt’s case, this information will be of limited value to subsequent generations as part of their medical family history.